Review: Bedlam's Door: True Tales of Madness and Hope by Mark Rubinstein

Title: Bedlam's Door: True Tales of Madness and Hope
Author: Mark Rubinstein
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Thunder Lake Press
Publish Date: September 1, 2016 (Yesterday!)
Source: PR

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Why would a man born in Hungary and living on Manhattan's Lower East Side run down Delancey Street ranting "I'm king of the Puerto Ricans"?

What would compel a physically healthy woman to persuade surgeons to operate on her more than a dozen times?

How was it possible for a man wearing a straitjacket to commit suicide within a locked psychiatric ward while in the company of a well-trained guard?

Though these and the other stories in this volume read like fiction, each is true.

Former practicing psychiatrist Mark Rubinstein opens the door and takes the reader deep into the world of mental illness. From the chaos of a psychiatric emergency room to the bowels of a maximum security prison, the stories range from bizarre to poignant and the people from noble to callously uncaring."

My Two Cents:

"Bedlam's Door" is a non-fiction book that focuses on stories from Mark Rubinstein's career as a psychiatrist. The brain is an amazing thing that does not always act like it should. Rubinstein explores some of the various mental illnesses he has treated through case studies. He has had a long career and the stories seem to span his entire career.

Mental illness is a serious issue that poses a threat to public health. Although the treatment of some mental illnesses have seemed to advance over the years, Rubinstein points out that there is still a long way to go in order to fully understand some mental illnesses and treat them effectively. The case studies in this book from people dealing with severe depression to schizophrenia. 

One of the case studies that pulled me in the most was about a woman who was convinced that there was something wrong with her and got doctors to conduct multiple surgeries on her when there really was not anything wrong. This woman had lost a twin when she was very young and that even had affected her in such a way that it channeled into her perceiving herself to be in massive pain all of the time. I can't imagine going through such a 

The writing of the book was enjoyable. There were some sections of the book that could have been scaled down more as they got very wordy and delved into the telling, rather than showing realm. I liked how the chapters were broken down by case study, which made it very easy to follow the book!